Comic Book Question of the Week Results: Iron Man 3's Twist

@om1kron: no, i just watched the credits, saw the companys name and googled it. maybe you give it a try?

click this and cry

@bonzi161: That's because everyone knows who Ra's is. If Ra's turned out to really be the bald guy, all the fans would get angry, right?

My take on this: Trevor might be doing a "Kaizer Soze". wherein he is really the one pulling the strings, pretending to be helpless (just in time for the next Avengers movie). Why would Killian be so hellbent like that on the destruction of Tony Stark? He could be the puppet for all we know. Or, as the movie puts it, the ruse, the fake figurehead. Either way, the plot twist was satisfying since not too many people are aware of the Mandarin, outside of the comic book world.

Another thought, Iron Man was never this big until the first movie came out, which Robert Downey Jr. portrayed. So, I think, we the fans should be glad about the movie turn out, since if the Iron Man franchise didn't work out, we would never had seen the Avengers or its subsequent franchises.

The only way we can sustain this film trend, is to continually support the directors, the actors, the producers and everyone involved in making our fanboy dreams come true. There will be hits and misses, but we don't need to be so overly passionate on how it doesn't match up to the way we visualize our favorite stories turned into film reality.

Can't wait for the inevitable "Fin Fang Foom" movie where he's not even remotely Chinese and is probably a pet gecko.

Maybe i wouldn't have had a problem with it if Aldrich Killian had been a good villain . I still don't understand what he was trying to do.

I kept hearing how they wanted to keep the Iron Man franchise "TECHY" and didn't want to bring in super powers, but then after Avengers and a whole alien army invading they didn't really have a choice. Then they go and take a way what so many damn people wanted to see. Big Ben was still awsome. I didn't really care the Mandarin wasn't Chinese, but for the Mandarin to not be the Mandarin was just kind of a bummer. Since the 1st movie and the mention of the 10 Rings we wanted to see the rings in action.

The worst thing about the Mandarin twist is that it's the only thing anyone is talking about. It makes it seem like the only thing those of us who don't like Iron Man 3 have a problem with is that single twist. From what I've read on the boards, that is not the case at all. Our problems with the film go way deeper. The Mandarin fiasco is only one example of it.

ok I ranted about the Mandarian thing for a few days now. made my point and moved on. But that wasn't the only thing that just didn't sit right with me.

1) Super Pepper saving the day

2) The annoying quasi genius kid

3) missing out on showing some iconic suits. No Hulkbuster? Silver Centurian? not sure why they took the short cut on that

4) You wanna fight, Meet me at my house, here's my address...WHA?! Sneak attack.?? No fair I wasn't ready..

5)Rhodey trying to kick ass and be tough in a Green polo shirt

@mrfuzzynutz: 1 and 5 are right on @babsgirl: i thought i was the only one

I didn't care much for the twist. The movie itself was OK; very fun but nothing special.

I did want to see him use the rings one time at least but the twist was BRILLIANT and INNOVATIVE and Ben was hilarious.

Personally, I hated every minute of most the Movie after the big reveal. At first, I thought it was a plot by Mandarin to paint himself as an imbecile and fool Tony Stark... not to happen. Ever since this franchise got off the ground I've clambering for the Mandarin and when this is what I got. BIG LET DOWN!

I enjoyed the twist. Had there been no twist and Ben Kingsley was playing Mandarin I would've been furious (as I was before the movie) that Hollywood had yet again whitewashed an Asian character.

My feeling is that there could have both a Mandarin movie and an Extremis movie, but they sacrificed one for the other for no good reason. A fake Mandarin added nothing to the Extremis plot. I was entertained, though, I have to admit. It was funny. The wasted opportunity is pretty sad, though.

Was I the only one bracing myself for Bro-darin to snap into evil mode mid-beer and punch out Tony or spring an ambush? How awesome would that be? Double-fake-out!

let's all take a breath?

Exactly.

I have little to zero knowledge of comicbook Mandarin but I still didn't dig the twist so the whole "only die hard Mandarin fans care and are butthurt" argument is bullcrap.

Can we as fans NOT use the word "raped" to refer to the Mandarin story twist, please? This isn't XBox Live, let's try to be at least a little less offensive than that.

At first I hated it, but the second time I liked it.

boy this film was terrible. this was one of those dumb ideas they had to make the film a comedy. this film was more obsessed about cheap laughs then doing a good story.

When The Ben Kingsley's satellite footage were shown on TV, I had a feeling that Tony Stark is going to get anally rapedsoon, soon, very soon, and then the plot twist happened. The worst Plot Twist of my Life. Did not Shane Black realise that Ben Kingsley's political genius Terrorist could have become a better Villain than Joker, if executed rightly?

Guess that is the difference between Shane Black and Christopher Nolan.

I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. I understand both sides but yet sit perfectly in the middle. I understand why people hate it as I can kinda understand. I also understand why people can like it as I kinda agree with that too.

Did i want to see Kingsley actually be the real film adaption of the mandarin. Yes. Was I a bit dissapointed about the twist. Yes. Did i get over it a few seconds later. Yes. I think its also important to note that the twist WAS actually set up in the film with Tonys quote "mandarin. chines for adviser to the king". By this standard Kingsley couldn't have been the real mandarin as he was portrayed as "the king", while Guy Pearce was the advisor, his main plan being to rule both sides of a conflict from the shadows and advise on how to do it, hence at the end HIS final words being "I AM THE MANDARIN!". So it was a game of cloaks and shadows where the real mandarin was not the man we thought we were going to get. Now could it have been done better, well yeh they could have had an Asian actor (or a more menacing actor in general) take on Guy Pearces role so that the twist could have been more accepted (maby) because, well, you don't set up a twist like that with the end result being Guy Pearce, and i think that THATS the biggest problem with it. Not Kingsley not being the real mandarin, but Pearce being the final pay off.

Other than that i thought that the film was fun and i would watch it again.

@americansone: Whitewashed? Ben Kingsley is of Indian heritage

@slamadams: But the Mandarin is of Chinese heritage. You don't switch one minority for another.

i liked the twist , killian's plot to give the world a villain to hate while he is off making a army or near-immortal soldiers was great , my only gripe : not enough war machine/iron patriot . also the post credit scene was meh, i really don't understand the hate for the movie, there has been worse movies ...

@darklydreamingdeadpool: Pretty sure victims of rape wouldn't appreciate that comment. I get your point, but I'm sure you can say it in a more tasteful way.

Anyway... I thought the movie was fine. I generally prefer when adaptations stick to the source material, but I see how it worked for the movie. And I read a comment that stated the essence of mandarin stayed the same, and was just transfered to killian. And I can see that too. I didn't feel strongly one way or the other about the twist. I enjoyed the movie, and I thought it was better than 2. But the first is still my favorite of the 3 movies.

@lrtaylor02: well, that comment really raped me.

Well, seeing that they did use the Ten Rings flag logo from the first Iron Man film - my theory:

Killian swiped the iconography and played it up for his own ends- BUT Iron Man 4 will have the TRUE Mandarin appearing to set the record straight.

People need to take a step back from the hostility on the movies.

Marvel has what a hundred thousand different universes for their comics to tell different stories each month.. Spider-man died in ultimate's.. does that mean he dies in the movies? no.

The movie universe so to speak is different from the comics.. and rightly so, the fans know the story in the comics, and we as fans should be open to other adaptations and love them the same. I for one understand the let down with the Mandarin, but if they had stayed to a true path with the mandarin what would we have gotten? a re-hash of Ironman vs Whiplash or Iron Monger only with the mandarin in an armor?, we can only sit here and speculate... and sitting here hashing out anger toward what a movie did to provide entertainment isnt helping.. you dont like what was done.. grab a camera.. make your own version and stick it on youtube and watch how the fans react to you. i for one thought shane black did an outstanding job at telling a story that kept my attention for two hours.

why not start looking into the depth of the movie and try to find what may connect to the previous films or hint toward the next chapter. i for one didnt notice stark was drinking the green stuff in the first film because he already knew what the RT was doing to his body.

Building up to a epic fight between the hero and his classic arch-nemesis, only to be majorly let down. It's Tim Burton's "Batman" all over again! Seriously, how could the freaking MCU flop this badly?!

The twist was fun funny and unexpected. Come on did we really want see a battle using rings or did we want to see that awesome armory war? I think they did a job not making the film a carbon copy of the comics so hurray for the twist

Just now getting back home from seeing it.. Highly upset abt the mandarin thing. They made him look like a joke. Fuck it IM3!!!

The Mandarin was fine (not awesome) but what really disappointed me is the end when he destroys his armors and removes the arc reactor from his chest. Can you see Tony Stark without the arc reactor (in the MCU)?

Well you beat me to it... I felt as though it was a big let down. When I found out he was just an act I just didn't feel like watching the movie anymore. And what they did with the movies version of extremis armor was just...ughhhh. The only thing I did like was the scene after the credits.

look how quick fans turn, everybody was all for this movie and now bitching because there was no mandarin. he is a silly villian.

@jonny_anonymous: It wasn't a joke, not sure what you mean by that... and has anyone pointed this out yet..?

SPOILERS:
They didn't ruin The Manderan. That "actor" wasn't an actor, he's The Manderan. They did such an awesome, subtle job of it that I admit I was fooled, but in restrospect (along with Harry's review, and a family member who "got" it), it's obvious the whole thing was an act. It makes it even better, makes the character an even scarier menace than...well, I can't actually remember any film doing anything like this before, seemingly actually fooling a lot (most?) people who watch it. Makes him an even bigger, more credible threat...

So 43% hated it, and 57% didn't. Seems expected.

I really wasn't expecting it.

@sweetpotatoe: The term that was used was whitewashed. The character was not whitewashed, Ben Kingsley is not white. The term mandarin is actually rooted in Hindi and Sanskrit.

As for the twist, The Mandarin is based on Yellow Peril/Fu Manchu archetype and updating it to modern Middle Eastern paranoia makes sense. And considering Yellow Peril fear (and Middle Eastern paranoia for that matter) was mostly racist, having a villain manufacture that fear instead of having a whole movie based on that fear is a great twist. They just used the wrong movie to use it in considering there would be fall out if Tony Stark was ever clean shaven, nevermind if they dare change up an out-of-fashion bad guy.

I thought the twist was ok but I really disliked the film in general. Definitely one of the worst Marvel studios has made thus far.

Lol, if the mandarin was indeed real, his fight with iron man would've been primed for ridicule. I mean some of the rings powers are ridiculous. I don't see how they could've possibly made that work.

It was a very good movie. Not fantastic though. Definitely better than Spiderman 3, Green Lantern, Origins Wolverine, etc. People are overreacting to the whole mandarin situation.